Upper Red report~

Got up to Upper Red later on Friday night with my good buddy “Zim”. We got out early am Saturday morning to be welcomed with some stiff winds out of the NW. We started shallow out from the Tamarac River and probed these areas and eventually kept working ourselves out to deeper water unitl we could mark some activity. Water temp was about 47 degrees on the big lake. We ran into a bunch of healthy walleyes that were willing to chew but no crappies. We drifted with the drift socks slowly with light rigs floaters/minnow and also light jigs.

When we marked alot of fish in an area, we stopped, anchored and threw the bobbers out to hopefully entice them into a tasty slower treat, but no luck here doing this. We talked to alot of anglers who also with same results. I think maybe this bite is a week away or so? We could use some stable warmer weather.

Sean, thanks for all the info. Did you get out on Saturday?

Any luck? We heard of someone that had 19 fish in the river the previous weekend.

DeeZee,

I went on Saturday, but tried my luck on a lake just North of Deer River, the crappies were still in 26-30 feet of water, we did manage to entrigue a few of them, but for the most part they were sluggish as well. As for Red lake it seems the fish are now as of 5-5-02 just starting to move towards the spawning areas. I have talked to a few people in the last 24 hours that made it up to Red and did fairly well on Sunday. By the looks of the forcast, the fishing should be good on Red from here on out.

The main bite on Sunday was to the north of the Tamarac River in 5-8 feet of water.

I will be hitting red in the next couple weeks, but for the opening week it looks like I will be chasing walleyes on Winnie, man I can’t wait.

The weather on Upper Red Lake has been the biggest problem. The crappies are right there in the shallow water (5 to 7 feet), I know because when ever the winds dies down we manage to catch a few fish but that has not been to often the past two weeks.

Hopefully this weekend we can catch a couple of days of nice weather.

Outsider,

Hey what is the water level like at your landing. I will be coming up in the next couple of weeks and hope to land at your place. Could you let me know ….Thanks.

Sean,

The water level is about a foot lower than what we remember; I think it is a little closer to normal. The ice really did a number on the river mouth; it moved quite a few rocks into it. I should have them all marked before this weekend and then have them removed after June 15. One good thing is the bridge is about 12 inches higher…

On saturday my friend and I went to our favorite crappie lake and got his mom 2 limits of crappies for mothers day, and on sunday we got my mom 2 limits for mothers day.

I’m impressed that you did so well! I fished Red on Friday and it was tough!!! We dragged floating lindy rigs for about half the day and caught nothing. Switched to slip bobbers in about 6ft. and got 10 nice crappies. We were North of Hudec’s about a mile.